This Saturday, from 4:00 - 11:00, the TRILLION space is opening a science and art exhibit entitled “Solutions.”  The event is a positivistic peak into the future of environmental problem-solving, and a collaboration between the area’s best young scientists and artists.  Featured performances include DJ Chach, poetry slammer Hakim Bellamy, and Albuquerque’s beat box diva, Saywut.

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After having defined ourselves as members of a counter-movement for some time now, PAC505 is undergoing a bit of an identity crisis as we try to understand and redefine our role now that we got what we wanted.  Are we cheerleaders?  An external leftward pressure on the new powers that be?  What do we do if not resist? Given the challenges facing us, this American awakening will have to comprise an era, rather than just a moment, in order for the country to be salvaged. The same elevated sense of citizenship and service that won the election for Obama will have to persist, in one way or another, throughout his term(s) for him and us to succeed. Here are some of the more obvious ways we can think of to stay involved:

1. Continue to pay close attention to domestic and international politics.

2. At the same time, maintain a strong focus on politics and culture at a local level.

3. Speak out as often as possible.  As modest as our own impact may be, there is truth to the notion that, taken collectively, little blogs like ours comprise a big chunk of the new Media.

4. Host and attend events that bring Albuquerque’s progressive community together and help foster a group-identity.

Got ideas for us?  E-mail us or comment.

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Rahm Emanuel is former ballet dancer.  The character “Ari” in the HBO show “Entourage” is based on Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ari.  Emanuel is the son of an Israeli and remains a practicing “modern Orthodox” Jew.  He is a strong proponent of universal health care, and was a senior adviser to President Clinton.  Emanuel’s appointment has drawn fire from factions of both the right (which seems to view him as a hard-nosed Democratic henchman) and the left (which views him as a hawkish Zionist, a “Jewish Rove”). To be sure, his apparent support of the War in Iraq is disturbing.

The Chief of Staff is a flexible position within a presidential administration.  According to Wikipedia: “The duties of the White House Chief of Staff vary greatly from one administration to another. However, the chief of staff has been responsible for overseeing the actions of the White House staff, managing the president’s schedule, and deciding who is allowed to meet with the president.” Some Presidents rely on a Chief of Staff for policy advise while others do not. Bush’s current Chief of Staff is Josh Bolton, who rarely makes news.

By all accounts, Emanuel gets things done. His fundraising is legendary, as is his work ethic and loyalty.   Assuming, as we must, that Obama’s judgment—particularly in matters of foreign affairs—remains independent from that of his Chief of Staff, Emanuel seems like pretty damn sensible choice for the post.

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Modest Mouse: Little Motel

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Apparently the winds of change, tolerance, intelligence, have yet to blow through parts of Otero County.  According to the Alamogordo Daily News, Republican visionary Marcia Stirman, who, in one foul breath last month mislabeled our new president a Muslim and, more disturbingly, declared Muslim people to be enemies of America, was re-elected to her post as chairperson of the Republican Women of Otero County. Echoing the timeless words of Alexander Hamilton, she declared that she was going to stand strong because she is “not a peeing puppy” and she “means it.”

Fortunately for the rest of New Mexico, the Republican Women of Otero County is a profoundly irrelevant group whose only apparent role is to embarrass the state and national Republican party.

Thanks to Carol for the tip.

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Hakim Bellamy: “He Absolutely Had to Be a Community-Organizer”

Hakim Bellamy is a two-time National Champion in the Poetry Slam scene, as well as a freelance journalist, community organizer and social justice advocate. He is currently working for the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs and is a board member for Poetic Justice Institute and Black Cowgirl Productions as well. He is most proud of being the Poetry Club coach at South Valley Academy.

In talking about the work that SWOP does in the community, my good friend Tomás Garduño said, “groups like SWOP have been doing the work in the community long before Senator Obama made it popular to be a ‘community organizer.’”  In other words, WE, the community organizers, should stand and be recognized for the work we did to make this historic candidacy possible and the work we’ll continue to do long after Senator Obama is president-elect.

The Obama Campaign was brilliantly strategized. Their brilliance lies in the fact that they did not try to reinvent the wheel or “parachute campaign” (as the Republicans have been very effective at doing in elections past). In other words, the Obama Campaign didn’t just drop into our town to stump issues and plant seeds of fear, desperation or misplaced nationalism only to ransom our vote and then leave right after they’d won the race, never to be heard from again until the next election cycle. Instead, the Obama camp realized that they needed to use people already on the ground in “real American” communities all across the nation—people who were already in the trenches fighting wars AT HOME.  People who aren’t easily swayed by perfect smiles, shiny shoes and fancy-shmancy check-signing pens. We have a certain disdain for authority and politicians.  We have already enacted change in our local communities and we have a history of holding public officials accountable. On a local level, we have already experienced change we can believe in, because we are the agents of change in our communities. We have been waiting for such change to occur on a national level.

In order to succeed, Obama had to be one of us. He needed us to buy in order to give his campaign legs in local communities. He needed us to believe. And his story was one that folks in groups like SWOP, Common Cause, New Mexico Youth Organized, NM Hip Hop Congress, Young Women United and many others could believe in primarily because we lived it too.  We can smell when someone is falsely-depicting. It’s like when you’re from the streets and you hear someone talking about said “streets” and three sentences in, you know for sure that they have never spent a day on the streets in their life. That’s not gangsta at all.

The Obama Campaign worked because we already had networks established. We had our own grassroots ground games. We had already cultivated an organized, informed, and active base of citizens who got up out their homes and did what it takes to carry their neighborhoods, communities, families and schools forward. We were the ones out registering record numbers of voters, convincing our gang-banging cousins to register, walking our neighbors with felonies down the path of re-enfranchisement. We are the opinion leaders in our social circles and personal relationships talking out the issues with those we care about because their future is important to us. And that carries more weight than billions of dollars in TV commercials. It means more when it comes from someone you have suffered side-by-side with in the same economically depressed neighborhood for the past 8 years than from someone flown in from Boston to canvass your block for 8 weeks.

So stand up and take your bow, community organizers. No matter what race, sex or nationality you are, one of ours has made it to the presidency because of you. Because of us. We have been the change we wanted to see in the world for some time and now, and finally, the world is starting to look like us. Our work is not in vain and, as President-Elect Obama has now realized, neither was his. And maybe, just maybe, community organizers like us will have to get bodyguards and paparazzi-protection because from now on it will be DAMN sexy to be a “community organizer.”

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If you have trouble getting upset about this issue, check out one of the brazenly homophobic (and painfully stupid) ads that was aired in support of the proposition.

Still a lot of work to do.

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While I recognize that her show’s success depends on a certain level of shock jock entertainment, she also strikes me as an incredibly intelligent woman. I began to wonder if she simply did not understand Obama’s message (which is hard to believe) or if she is just incapable of meeting our new president’s challenge. “Unity” and “change” powered a political campaign, but can they sustain the media?

Perhaps most troubling was the fact that it took less than 24 hours for one of Obama’s most loyal supporters to completely disregard his message. I sincerely hope it is not a sign of what is to come. It would be tragic if Obama’s goals of national service, political action, and community involvement failed as a result of pettiness and short-sitedness by the very people who worked so hard to put him in office.

The way to fulfill Obama’s message of hope is not to shout “I told you so” to radios scattered around the world, but rather to become part of the trickle-down change that Obama has the power to implement. After listening to progressive radio, I wonder if this change is possible.

—The Cleaner

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Click this link to check out the story that aired last night on KOAT.

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A serious person viewing the world can hardly fail to see that we face critical problems, even problems of survival of the species. Every four years attention is focused on the presidential election, which makes good sense, though we should recognize that what the chosen candidate will do depends substantially on the pressures created by activist popular movements. That has always been true in the past, and we can confidently expect that it will be a decisive factor in the years to come. There can be no more urgent task than to develop and sustain these pressures, and the organizations that will construct and implement them.

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